


Talking to the Moon

by The_Fangirl_Sunstorm



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, I feel like this ship doesn’t get enough attention, I liked the nods to Yue In the series, I wouldn’t say this fic is angsty per se, Past Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Sokka has a dream about Yue, The major character death is past (Yue), This takes place sometime after the end of book 1, although exactly when is up to interpretation, but I feel like the boy deserved a minute to process, but I figured it was worth tagging anyway, especially when Sokka mentioned her, hence why I wrote this fic, just bittersweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27555298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fangirl_Sunstorm/pseuds/The_Fangirl_Sunstorm
Summary: Sokka awoke around midnight, with the ghostly feel of lips pressed against his own and the memory of flowing white hair and pale blue eyes.
Relationships: Sokka/Yue (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Talking to the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> This fic’s title comes from the song “Talking to the Moon” by Bruno Mars.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Sokka awoke around midnight, with the ghostly feel of lips pressed against his own and the memory of flowing white hair and pale blue eyes.   
  


The young warrior twisted in his bedsheets, using the motion to help him reawaken his senses. Needing to get his bearings, he sat up in his sleeping bag, glad for the shafts of moonlight coming in through the tree branches above. Sokka looked up at the full moon glowing in the sky, and felt a pang deep in his chest as he remembered what he had been dreaming about. 

Princess Yue. His first love and the girl who had given her life just a few weeks ago to save her people. 

_The dream felt so real_. The teen thought to himself ruefully.

Sokka tried to hold onto it for another moment, to remember the warmth of being there with her, but it slipped through his mind like water. 

_Just like she had._

Sokka grimaced at the unwelcome thought. 

The water tribe member had been dreaming of Yue, but not as a spirit like she had been in her final moments or like in his vision in the swamp, but human and alive and well. 

_As she still should be now_. Sokka couldn’t help but think.

The dream was already fading, but Sokka clung to it as best he could. He remembered Yue smiling at him without a care in the world, cheeks rosy and arm outstretched to greet him as if she had never left. He wasn’t sure if they had said anything to each other, but he remembered the relief he had felt at seeing her, like some ball of tension had finally come unknotted in his chest. Sokka remembered pulling her close, feeling her solid body and soft white hair in such detail that when he awoke from the dream kiss he had almost forgotten that she was gone. 

Waking up forced him to relive the truth all over again, and that hurt worse than the young warrior knew how to deal with.

Sokka almost wished tonight’s dream had been a nightmare. He’d had his fair share of those, and at least when he dreamed of bad things there was a certain comfort in waking, in being able to tell himself that none of it was real. Except, of course, when he dreamed about things that had actually happened to him, like his mother’s death or his father and the other men having to leave the water tribe. Those were harder to shake off, but enough years had passed now that the sting of both memories had receded. 

But tonight’s dream hadn’t been about his family, it had been about _her_. Sokka had dreamed about Yue before, but only in nightmares of her sacrifice, watching the young woman transferring her life force to the Koi fish before taking her last breath and falling backwards into his arms. Sometimes in those dreams Sokka held Yue’s body tightly, trying to keep at least some part of her with him but in the end she always faded out of his arms, just like she had in real life. Sokka usually awoke from that dream feeling sad and guilty, knowing that he had been unable to protect her, wishing that there had been _something_ he could have done to save her.

The teen gripped the edge of his bedroll and glanced around at the campsite the group had chosen for the night; relieved at the sight of Aang and Katara still sound asleep in their own blankets a few feet away and the mountain of Appa’s fur rising up and down as the creature slept at Aang’s side. He couldn’t tell from here but it was likely that Momo was curled in the pile as well.

Sokka breathed a heavy sigh, glad that the others weren’t awake to see him struggling. As much as he loved them the thought of their optimism when he felt so raw was unpleasant to say the least. He knew they had both liked Yue, but neither of them had shared a particularly strong connection with the princess, so at least in this one respect he was alone in his grief. 

Sokka tipped his head back to look at the sky, where only a sliver of the moon peeked out from behind the clouds. He smiled a sad, bittersweet smile at the sight as he remembered Yue’s final words to him.

“I’ll always be with you.” She had said as she cupped his cheek in her hand and kissed him goodbye. Sokka traced his palm with a finger, thinking of how she had been holding his hand when the Koi fish died, how her grip had loosened and he had been forced to let her go despite how badly he had wanted to keep her safe. In the end she had saved her people, but she had paid a steep price, and Sokka hadn’t been able to protect her.

The warrior clenched his teeth as he rode out the wave of guilt and sorrow. Sokka was proud of Yue’s strength, but he also missed her. His eyes burned but he did not cry.

Sokka’s memories of his mother were faded and hazy, but a story she had told him once floated to the surface of his mind as he grappled with his emotions, a story about a woman who lost her husband and talked to the moon every night as if she was talking to him.

In the tale, the moon spirit had been so touched by the widow’s words that one night it had guided the husband’s spirit to sit just behind the moon and listen, and the man, who had died suddenly and had been unable to see his wife a final time, finally found peace after hearing her pouring her heart out. His mother had said that because the two loved each other so much they were connected. The woman could feel that her husband was peaceful and this gave her the strength to go on until she passed away herself and rejoined him again.

Sokka had always wondered how the wife had known her husband had heard her, and what had compelled her to talk to him night after night, but now the teen thought he understood. 

The story stirred something inside the water tribe member, a longing that rose from his chest to his throat and settled on his tongue as words. Even if Yue couldn’t hear him, he still wanted to let them out. The teen let out a deep breath and began to speak, face tilted up to the sky.

“Hey Yue, it's Sokka.” The warrior paused for a moment before continuing, as he collected his thoughts. “I know you said you’d be with me, but when people say that they usually just mean ‘with you in your heart’ so I have no clue if you can actually hear me right now or if I’m talking to empty air but I just… I just wanted to talk to you.” It wasn’t the strongest start but Sokka plowed ahead, determined to say what he had wanted to say. He owed her that much.

”I uhh talked to your dad after you became the moon spirit. I just thought you should know that he’s really proud of you. You did a really brave thing.” Sokka watched as the clouds drifted across the moon’s face and the stars glinted above, taking in the cold beauty that felt so close and so far away at the same time.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to help you, that there wasn’t anything I could do to stop you from having to make that choice. I’m sorry you had to make that choice in the first place. I wish there had been another way because you deserved _so much more_.” Sokka’s throat felt tight but he forced his vocal cords to soldier on so that he could say the final phrase… the one that had been in the back of his mind from day one after Yue had become the moon spirit. 

“I miss you.” 

It wasn’t nearly enough but it was all he could manage. He let his head fall to his chest as he thought of Yue smiling at him in the dream.   
  


Suddenly, he remembered what she had said to him in the dream just before she had kissed him and he had woken up, the words going from forgotten to remembered for just a moment. 

“It’s alright Sokka. I love you” Yue has said, moonlight making her hair shine silver as she rubbed a thumb along his cheekbone, hand cupping his face. “Everything is going to be ok.”

The teen bowed his head further, letting himself feel both grief and bittersweet happiness before lifted his face to look at the moon again, mouth pulling up at the corner in an almost smile.

  
  


Maybe this was what his mother had meant when she talked about the wife in the story finding peace.

“Ok Yue, I’ll try to believe you.”

And he did.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and constructive criticism are all welcome.
> 
> Thanks for reading! <3


End file.
